First Ride in Forever

When I walked down the barn aisle yesterday evening in my jeans and western boots, Winston stuck his head out in interest and hope.

When I put his grooming box by the tie rail and walked over to take him out of his stall, he started grinning.  In fact, he grinned so big that his eyes squeezed shut.

I rode him in the arena for about ten minutes to assess his attitude.  He is only five after all.  And he hasn't been ridden in three months.  Initially, he was smoking around the arena at a very forward walk (which I encouraged) and it took about ten minutes to get his focus on me.  Once he was listening to my seat and my leg, stopping and turning and moving where I wanted him to go, we headed down the back driveway and around the block.  I worked on keeping the forward walk, on keeping his back up and his hind end pushing, but otherwise left him alone.  Other than a few reminders when he popped his head up or tried to snatch a bite of the brushy trees and shrubs along the bridle path, he was good as gold.  He only spooked once and I knew it was coming as he had been giving something the wild eye as we rode up the road.  When we got even with the "something," he scooted sideways into the road.  I told him not to be a goof and we continued on.  He was very happy, marching along.  We left Flash in the dust (they were doing a western amble) and could hear Jackson screaming from home, but Winston just did his job.

When we got home, I put him in the pasture so he could roll and relax.

I went into the pasture to take his picture and he immediately came over to me.  I love having a horse who wants to work, who wants to be with me and who tries to please.  (Jackson did too, but Auke... not so much).

Back with the Home Crowd

Yesterday, Camille and I made the long drive back home.  It took us just shy of twelve hours including short stops for lunch, frozen yogurt and dinner.  I unpacked the cooler, Brett took everything out of the car with Camille's help, and then I watched the Olympics -- leaving the rest of the unpacking for today. 

My foot handled all the driving just fine.  Before I went to bed, I un-taped the toes and they seemed okay that way so I left free during the night.  This morning, they were stiff, to be sure, but didn't hurt so I tried wearing a real shoe down to the barn for chores.  At first, my toes complained but then they settled down and were pretty happy.  Happier than in the clunky heavy boot anyway.

I checked on my garden before getting the dogs.  My grape tomatoes are in need of harvesting.  The sauce and slicing tomatoes aren't quite there yet.  I love eating grape tomatoes as a snack -- bits of ruby red sunshine exploding sweet in my mouth.

Normally, when I go into the back yard the dogs meet me at the door and then race me to their gate.  They love to play (Kersey) and patrol (Sedona) while we do chores.  This morning, they met me at the door as usual.  Sedona immediately started squeaking like a tea pot and wiggling in welcome.  Kersey ran in circles around us.  But instead of running to the gate, Sedona dropped to the ground and waved all four paws in the air to make sure I knew how happy she was to see me.  We eventually made it out the gate and down to the barn where Brett was busy making up the morning buckets of vitamin supplements for the horses.  Brett immediately noticed that I wasn't wearing my walking boot --and suggested we go for a ride this afternoon with Flash and Winston.  Is it any wonder I push the recovery on my foot?  He's worse than me! 

Brett put the supplements in the stalls, filled Winston's bucket with water to soak (his supplements are kind of goopy -- coarsely ground flax seed base we mix with water to make it palatable), and went to let the horses into the barn.  Kersey immediately drank from Winston's bucket.  She will eat or drink anything.

Winston was too busy eating his supplements to give me the time of day.

But Flash stuck his nose over the stall door so I could give him a kiss.

Jackson was staring out of his stall with longing.

But it wasn't me that he wanted.

He was waiting for this:

So I got to work mucking the pasture.

I'm pleased -- I fed the goats, the dogs and mucked the pasture this morning.  That's almost my full list of responsibilities -- Brett did the chickens and Camille is here to feed her rabbits.  And, I did it in regular shoes without pain or fatigue.  Yes!